Inkset Draw a picture puzzle
Tap or drag across the squares to draw. As you draw, we check that the row and column numbers lead to your picture without a single guess. Then give it a title and send it to a friend.
How it works
A nonogram hides a picture behind numbers. Beside each row and above each column, the numbers give the runs of filled squares in that line, in order: “2 2” means two filled, a gap, two filled. Your friend sees only those numbers and works the picture out, one row or column at a time.
“Solvable without guessing ✓” means that the numbers alone lead to your picture and to nothing else. We run the same line-by-line solver that checks every daily nonogram: it looks at one row or column at a time, fills each square that every possible arrangement of that line agrees on, and repeats until it is stuck or done. That runs in under a millisecond, so the check updates as you draw.
“Needs a guess” means the solver got stuck, and the rows and columns where it got stuck are tinted. Two filled squares that touch only at a corner are the classic cause: with numbers of 1 and 1 on both their rows and both their columns, the other diagonal fits just as well, so nobody can tell which you meant. Our first envelope for this page’s card had the same problem. Its flap folded in an X across rows 4 and 5, and no single line could place those 8 squares. Making the flap’s corners in row 3 one square thicker fixed it. Solid shapes and lines that cross most of the grid are easy to solve. Scattered dots are not: in a test of 2,000 random drawings, only 6% of 8×8 grids with about a third of the squares filled could be solved without guessing, against 96% of grids with about two thirds filled.
Empty and full grids are refused. An empty grid has no picture, and a full one is just a black square, which is no puzzle.
For a friend
Send to a friend makes a link like dankpuzzles.com/nonogram/#d=8.AP_npZmB_wA.For%20you%21 (this page’s envelope, titled “For you!”). Your drawing is packed into the part after the #: one bit per square, so 11 characters for an 8×8 and 18 for a 10×10, then the title. A browser never sends that part to a server. Nothing is stored anywhere except in your browser and your friend’s. Your friend plays it on the nonogram page with Fill and Mark, Hint and Check. The title stays hidden until the last square is right, and solving it never touches their daily streak. A link carries your drawing as it was when you sent it: draw again and send again to share a change.
Titles can be up to 24 letters, digits, spaces and . , ! ? ' - (Danish æ, ø and å and accented letters are fine). Anyone can read a title by decoding the link, so it is only hidden from someone who plays fair. Titles are checked against the same lists of crude words and slurs that keep our daily puzzles clean, in English and in Danish. Because of that, a few innocent words are refused too: “spade” is on the Danish list, as it is also a slur there.
Print it
Print it gives page 1 with the numbers and an empty grid to solve in pencil, and page 2 with the answer and the title. It prints in black ink with no menus or colours, with 12 mm squares for an 8×8 and 11 mm for a 10×10, big enough to fill with a pencil. A good first move for a new solver: a row or column whose number equals the grid’s width is filled all the way across, and an 8 in an 8×8 often starts the whole picture.
We count visits and plays anonymously. No cookies, no personal data.
What we count
Each visit adds one to a count for the page’s address, nothing more. The maker adds two tallies. Each is a fixed name, with no drawing, no title, no cookie and nothing about you. A tally goes up by one when:
picture-make-shareyou tap Send to a friendpicture-make-arrivesomeone opens a picture you sent them on the nonogram page (once per picture per browser)
How to use the nonogram maker
This page turns a small drawing into a picture logic puzzle. You draw on the grid; the maker works out the row and column numbers, checks after every square that those numbers lead to your picture and nothing else, and then gives you a link to send or two pages to print. There is no account and nothing to install.
Step by step
- Pick a size. 8 × 8 is quick to draw and to solve; 10 × 10 leaves room for more detail. Switching size keeps what fits, measured from the top-left corner, and Undo switches back.
- Draw. Tap a square to fill it, tap it again to clear it, or drag across several. A drag paints every square it passes with whatever the first square became, so you can also rub out in one stroke. Undo takes back a whole stroke; Clear empties the grid (and Undo brings it back).
- Watch the line under the grid. “Solvable without guessing ✓” means the numbers alone lead to your drawing. “Needs a guess” tints the rows and columns where the logic gets stuck: add or remove a square there, often one that touches another only at a corner.
- Give it a title of up to 24 characters. It stays hidden until the last square is right, so it can say what the picture is.
- Send or print. Send to a friend opens your device’s share menu where it has one, and otherwise copies the link; Print it opens your browser’s print dialog with the puzzle ready.
Worked example: a mug
On an 8 × 8 grid, leave the top and bottom rows empty. In rows 2 to 7, fill the first six squares of each row: that is the mug. Then fill the last square of rows 3, 4 and 5 for the handle. The maker numbers it like this:
- Rows, top to bottom: none, 6, 6 1, 6 1, 6 1, 6, 6, none.
- Columns, left to right: 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, none, 3.
It shows “Solvable without guessing ✓” at once, and a solver can see why: the top and bottom rows are empty, so each column’s 6 must fill rows 2 to 7, and the column of 3 can only sit in the three rows whose numbers end in a separate 1.
Title it “Tea time” and Send to a friend makes a link to the nonogram page ending in #d=8.APz9_f38_AA.Tea%20time: the size, a dot, 11 characters that pack the 64 squares one bit each, a dot, and the title with its space written as %20. The puzzle travels in that # part of the link, which a browser keeps to itself, so it never reaches a server and is stored nowhere but in your browser and your friend’s.
For teachers and classes
Print it gives page 1 with a line for a name, the numbers and an empty grid, and page 2 with the filled answer and the title. In the print dialog, set Pages to 1 and the number of copies to the size of your class, then print page 2 once as your key. The squares print 12 mm wide on an 8 × 8 and 11 mm on a 10 × 10, big enough for a pencil and an eraser. A lesson that works well: pupils sketch a picture on squared paper, type it into the maker, fix any rows the maker tints, and then swap printouts with a classmate. Solid shapes such as the mug above are a good first puzzle; scattered dots almost never solve without a guess, and finding out why is part of the fun. Tell new solvers to start with any line whose number equals the width of the grid, because that line is full.